For the Love of Domestication
by insidethevoid
Summary: A domestic task and a new planet lead the Doctor on the road to those three little words.
1. Socks

"... And that, Rose Tyler, is why you _never_ hold down the second lever to the right for any amount of time exceeding 22.36547 Earth seconds."

"Fascinating Doctor, really, but d'you think I needed a half-hour lesson on it?"

Rose was teasing, and he knew it, but the Doctor flashed her his Why-would-you-even-say-that-I'm-incredibly-offended-and-you've-bruised-my-ego look from across the kitchen table anyway.

Fortunately, Rose knew just how to fix it.

She leaned across the table and kissed the Doctor on the cheek.

"Don't look so down. I love it when you get excited about stuff. But, since you seem to be done, a deal's a deal. You have to do what you promised."

Another look. His puppy dog face.

"No, no, you're not getting out of this. Come with me, we are folding laundry. I'm not doin' it by myself for once."

Rose got out of her seat, linked her hand with his and pulled him towards the wardrobe room. He resisted initially but they both knew he was going to do it, no matter how much the Doctor complained. Although he might have it in him to pout during. She was as much his weakness as he was hers. Honestly, she would've walked away from anyone else about 30 seconds into that lecture. Sometimes it was soothing just to hear him talk, even if she didn't understand what he was saying.

"But Rooooose I don't _want_ to fold laundry! I want to do something more exciting!"

He swung her around into his arms, throwing her off balance. The Doctor backed Rose to the wall, clearly trying his best to distract her. Oh, the lengths he would go to just to get out of chores! Once, he'd "gone out for jam" and came back four hours later, jamless and acting surprised that Rose hadn't waited for him to start cleaning.

"Stop it."

She tried to giving him a stern look but it was stifled by her laughter.

"Never."

He strategically placed a kiss where her neck met her shoulder before whispering into her ear, "We could go to a new planet, have a new adventure."

In the blink of an eye, Rose shifted her weight and suddenly the Doctor was against the wall, confused at the turn of events. Rose brought her face as close as she possibly could to his without making any contact. She felt his heartbeats increase, as they often did when things didn't go as he planned.

"Or you could do as you promised."

Before the words made their way to his brain, Rose has disappeared. Presumably into the wardrobe room. With a defeated look on his face, the Doctor thrust his hands in his pockets and begrudgingly followed her path. The Doctor opened the door and leaned against the frame, eyes wide at the sight before him. Rose was sitting on the floor surrounded by socks. High socks, low socks, black socks, white socks, his socks, her socks. The word had lost all meaning to him. But that happened with a lot of words, didn't it? Kiwi, physics. Why was that? Maybe there was a book in the TARDIS library about it. All about words that lose meaning when said too often. Even 'word' was a weird word. Word, word, word ...

"Doctor? Are you okay?"

Oh. Apparently he'd been lost in his thoughts again.

"What? Oh yeah. Fine!"

Back to the matter at hand. She expected him to sort socks. A Time Lord reduced to doing the most domestic of all domestic tasks. Time Lords didn't do domestic. They did, however, try to charm their way out of things.

"Rose?"

No answer, but she started to hum a tune.

"Roooose?"

"Hmm?" She answered but refused to look at him. Rose just continued paring socks, if she looked at him now it was all over. He'd be putting on his best face. It was a battle of wills.

"Have you given any more thought to my earlier proposal?"

"Oh about leaving this here for later while we traverse about the galaxy having the time of our lives?"

"Yes!"

"'Course I have. And you know what?"

"What?"

"I think the laundry needs doing."

"Hmph."

The Doctor sat next to her on the and began halfheartedly sorting socks and tossing the paired ones behind him. Rose went back to humming her song, trying to ignore the overgrown five year old sitting next to her.

"You thought they came out of the washer this way, did you?"

"No. I guess not. It's just so boring, can't we do something more fun?"

"Well how can I make it more fun for you? Because it needs doing."

"I can think of one way ..."

He leaned over, cupped her cheek in his hand, and kissed her with purpose. She returned his kiss enthusiastically but broke it shortly after, much to the Doctor's disappointment.

"Hang on, your not gettin' out of this by snogging me until I forget what we were doin'. But how about this," she threw a pair of socks at him, "as soon as we finish we'll throw the TARDIS on random, land in some seemingly innocent place and you can tell me all about the planet's history, people, and anything else you've ever wanted to tell me. Deal?"

She put some emphasis on anything. The Doctor found it intriguing, but let it pass. Just for that moment. Although he was reasonably sure what she meant.

He smiled. With those beautiful brown eyes staring into his, how could the Doctor refuse?

"Deal."


	2. Deadly Beauty

"There! Done! Done, done, done. Meet you in the Console Room? Yes!"

The Doctor threw the words at Rose and practically sprinted from the room. Apparently, that's what happened when you forced a Time Lord to sit still for more than fifteen minutes. Rose sighed happily, a smile on her face, and followed the path to the Console Room.

Alright, so she could've gotten the job done in half the time it took them to pair socks together. And maybe she would rather have gone 'gallivanting across the galaxy'. But this was it. One of those games they played, just to see if the other would do it. And they would, just to see the other happy. The Doctor had always given in to Rose. But Rose had always given in to the Doctor.

_"Rose, come on, it'll be fun! I promise!" _

_"Is this one of those times where you tell me it'll be fun for us but really it's fun for you?" _

_The Doctor was silent, unable to find the words. Rose raised one eyebrow, a smirk on her face. _

_"But Roooose, Albert Einstein has one of the greatest minds in the universe! How could you pass up a chance to hear him speak?"_

_"Because I'd have no idea what he'd be saying."_

_"What if I explain it to you?"_

_"Hmm, what if? I've no idea what you're on about half the time either."_

_The Doctor opened his mouth to let loose his rambling rebuttal but, as she was one to do, Rose cut him off._

_"_But_ I suppose since you're a fantastic date, it doesn't matter where we go." _

The Doctor was running around, pushing buttons, and flicking switches when she found him. Rose just smiled as she leaned against the rail. There was something fantastic about this life. Not the running around, saving the day part but the relationship part. Their first date was the end of the world and it just kept getting better.

It wouldn't end, would it? No. It couldn't. He was too fantastic a man to be in love with. And Rose did love him. So much. And she knew he loved her, even if he'd never said it.

But maybe he would. One day. Hopefully soon.

"Rose! So glad you could join me!"

"'Course I did! I'd never miss the chance at a new planet, and you're my lift."

"Well then! Allow me, Miss Tyler."

The Doctor ran over to the door and opened it, motioning for her to follow.

"Let's see where she's taken us," he said as he walked out of the TARDIS behind her.

If there was one thing the Doctor would never tire of, it was the look on Rose's face when she stepped out of the TARDIS with a new ground beneath her feet. He could get lost just taking her in, an awe-inspired grin on her face. The Doctor asked himself on a daily basis how he could be so lucky. Although he'd often indulge himself too long and she'd catch him staring. Like oh, say, right at that moment, for instance?

"Oh I am so much more subtle about that than you are."

"About what?"

"Mmm, like you don't know. Pop your eyes back in your head and walk with me."

They linked hands and walked through the field sprawled out in front of them. The color of everything around them was so vivid, Rose could barely believe her eyes. The brightest green grass, the most vibrant pink flowers, the deepest blue sky. It was truly breathtaking.

"You see, Rose, this planet is very deceptive. You see how beautiful everything is? The planet is just as deadly. Lots of stuff to avoid here!" He finished with a wide grin.

"This the TARDIS' idea of romance? Deadly beauty?"

"Just like you, Rose Tyler!"

She giggled. "Shut up!"

"Surely she has her reasons for taking us where she does. Come on, let's see the sights!"

And they did. Indulging themselves in the local food, people and atmosphere. Rose was delighted to find the planet's inhabitants looked human , other than their bright pink hue. It was almost neon. They were all wearing thick, heavy pans that looked a bit like potato sacks to Rose. She wondered if it was too bold of her to wear a dress, not knowing the planets customs. Maybe they were wearing those pants for a reason? No one seemed to mind though, so she pushed the thought from her mind.

"D'you hear music?" inquired Rose.

"I ... guess I do!" His excited smile turned into a playful pout. "No, Rose. Just, no. I know exactly what you're thinking!"

"Do you?"

"You want to go find out what that music is because it's very pretty."

"Yes."

"And you think it'll be a party and you like parties!"

"Regular Sherlock Holmes, you are."

"Aaaaaaaaand you like to dance at parties so you'll want me to dance with you."

"And?"

"Even though I'll protest because, as you well know, the Doctor doesn't dance."

"Oh you know me too well."

He smiled.

"So the Doctor doesn't dance but the Doctor pairs socks?"

"Not normally, Rose Tyler, no."

"Well perhaps today is the day for surprises!"

She had that same tone in her voice. The one from the laundry room the Doctor had brushed off. The one that showed the longing for those three words she'd uttered so many times before but he never could. But she knew he felt it. Maybe one day he could change that for her. But not today, no matter how much he wanted to. She would never push him into it, and he would be eternally grateful to her for that. She understood him. Was perfect to him. Still, he could give her something, couldn't he?

Suddenly, he flashed her a smile, gripped her hand tight and pulled Rose into a brisk walk. She looked puzzled and started to ask what was going on but he answered the question before she got it out.

"Come on then! If you want to dance, you'll have to keep up!"

Rose looked bewildered, albeit pleased, and broke into a slow jog to keep up with him. The Doctor dropped her hand to push apart some beautiful shrubbery he claimed was a short cut. He broke into a run again, a dashing smile on his face. Rose was right behind him, jumping over flowers and rocks.

Until she wasn't.


	3. Mine

The Doctor emerged from the shrubbery, a beaming grin on his face.

"Oh it _is_ a party! A birthday party by the looks of it, and guess who's just been invited? If I could just ... Ah! There's the psychic paper! Although it's really a shame we haven't brought a gift. Do that a lot, don't I? D'you think we can get by giving them air from my lungs again, Rose?"

He finished with a laugh, but was a little disheartened that Rose didn't join him.

"Why do I keep you around if you won't even laugh at my jokes?"

Silence.

"Rose?"

The Doctor's voice became worried and he finally turned around to a sight that horrified him. There, lying on the ground peeking out of the shrubbery was an arm. An arm he had come to associate with Rose. He silently prayed it was still attached to her.

Thankfully, he found her in one piece. Passed out, but in one piece all the same. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief for only a millisecond. There was still something very wrong, but what?

He spotted it.

There was a thin line of crimson trickling down Rose's leg. Not something you associate with passing out and Rose's uneven breathing. That worried him even more.

The Doctor looked around for who, or what, cold have done this. Something glistening about a foot away caught his eye. A flower pure white, except for one petal. A petal sprinkled with the same crimson blood now dripping down Rose's leg. A flower laced with poison. Beauty that kills. The realization seemed to throw him into a frenzy, his mind focused on one thing and one thing only: Rose Tyler will not die. Not here. Not today.

The TARDIS. Yes, if he could just get her back to the TARDIS then he could save her. The Doctor kneeled down beside Rose and attempted to pick her up as gently as he could. If they did not get back to the TARDIS soon, she'd almost certainly be dead. As soon as he touched her, Rose started to convulse on the ground in front of him, continually gasping for air and whimpering in pain.

The Doctor quickly pulled his hands away, racking his brain for some way to move her. He couldn't do it without physically picking her up. Time was running out, and he knew it. The Doctor would have to bring the TARDIS to her. That would make the apparent pain of his touch as minimal as possible.

He shuddered at the thought. His touch hurt her. It drove him mad just to think about it so he drove the thought from his mind. He was the Doctor. He was in the business of saving the innocent, and he would save her.

"Won't be a tick, I promise," he whispered to her, trying to keep the fright out of his voice in case she could hear him.

Taking a deep breath, the Doctor ran for the TARDIS.

* * *

><p>VWORP VWORP VWORP<p>

The TARDIS materialized in the shrubbery where the Doctor had left Rose. It should've been only about 60 seconds for her, but when the Doctor stepped out of the door, she was gone. By the looks of it, she had to have been carried off.

He walked with purpose along the path Rose's captors took. Fortunately, they had not gotten far. The Doctor saw her, convulsing and whimpering as before, but this time in the arms of several bright pink people in lab coast labeled, "Experimentation and Dissection Team."

"I _really_ don't think you wanna do that!" he yelled in their direction.

The group stopped dead in their tracks. The Doctor could have sworn he saw one of them flinch. He stopped right in front of the group of pink people, a look of rage stirring behind his eyes. A look that could surely rival that temper of his Ninth incarnation.

"Sir, who are you and what business is this of yours?"

"I'm the Doctor. First, understand that I am _very_ calm at the moment. Second, you have something of mine and you are going to give her back. Now."

There were murmurs from the group of pink people, barely above a whisper. They backed away, slightly shaking, the phrase "Oncoming Storm" still on their lips.

The leader spoke again, his voice unsteady, "A-all wounded civilians are licensed for dissection by," he gulped, "by law."

The Doctor was inches from the man's face.

"I know you know who I am, d'you really think that's going to happen? If you've heard the stories, you know I'm a man with nothing to lose. You know never to interfere with the people I care about! This is your one chance."

The man's hot pink skin turned a pale shade. Hesitantly, he snapped his fingers and Rose was placed at the Doctor's feet finding temporary relief from the skin-to-skin contact. The group turned to leave and the Doctor shifted his gaze to the blonde girl at his feet. He kneeled beside her.

"Rose I have to take you back to the TARDIS and I am so sorry but I have to carry you. But then I'll heal you, I promise," his voice dropped to a whisper, "I promise."

He picked her up and made a run for it. Running through the front doors and into the medical bay, placing Rose on the nearest bed.

"Vial. There's a vial. Somewhere there's a vial." He repeated it to himself as he tore through drawers and cabinets.

"Doctor? Wha-?"

"Rose you have to relax and keep still."

She started to lift herself up onto her elbows but stopped because she was in too much pain.

"Yes!" exclaimed the Doctor upon finding the medicine. Rose didn't have much time left and he knew it. She'd already passed out from the pain again. The Doctor poured the medicine into her mouth and coaxed it down her throat. It would take some time to work and he didn't want to think what the next hour would be like until she wakes up. If she wakes up, a voice in the back of his head reminded him.

The Doctor planted himself in a chair and fixated his eyes on Rose's face, trying to memorize every curve. He sat and waited.


	4. Fireworks

He desperately wanted her to wake up. Needed her to wake up. The poison from the flower couldn't have killed her so soon. No. She would wake up. Wouldn't she? He'd see her beautiful brown eyes again.

Time had never passed more slowly. The Doctor's mind drifted to earlier that day as he silently cursed himself. It was all his fault, wasn't it? He'd rather pair all the socks in the world than experience this for a moment longer.

Something he would never get used to: The feeling in his gut when he thought he was losing someone. When he actually was losing someone. When he blamed himself for it. And somehow, this time it felt worse than ever before. That's why he couldn't say it. At least, that's what he told himself. An overwhelming sense of loneliness came over him.

He wanted to talk to her, more for his benefit than Rose's. All he had done up to that point was think. Thinking wasn't getting him anywhere. In fact, thinking made it worse. Suppose he did lose her. She would die without hearing how he felt.

Glassy eyed and unsure, he took a deep breath.

"You know, I don't even know how long it's been since I felt this way about you. I suppose I knew there was something when I asked you to come with me. Twice. Then we ran. And it was brilliant, I mean that." He gave a small laugh, "And you slowly became my undoing."

"You don't remember our first kiss, do you? I mean, not the one where you were possessed by Cassandra or the one after I'd been cast in stone. Not that I really count them anyway, but before that. You never really asked why I regenerated apart from me absorbing the time vortex. When you walked out of the TARDIS all Bad Wolf and glowy and powerful it truly frightened me but I was in so much awe at the same time. And you did it. You beat the Daleks. But the vortex was too much for you so I absorbed it by kissing you. That was, technically speaking of course, our first kiss. Although I never told you. Partially because you never asked but mostly because I never imagined anything like this could ever happen."

His mind flashed through all the times he'd felt like he'd completely lost his chance at her. Their time at the school with Sarah Jane seemed to jump out at him.

"I felt some kind of pain I haven't felt in a very long time when you thought I'd just leave you behind one day. _That_ is something I don't think I could ever do."

He unconsciously moved his hand to hers, not noticing the lack of shuddering on Rose's part.

"But the day it happened. The day it actually happened. I wish you could've heard the things running through my head. Well actually, I don't. They were a bit frantic. It was just ... something about seeing you without a face. Hearing you were left in the street. When I finally got you back I momentarily lost control. I really had no intention of kissing you that day. And I know it was over in an instant, you have no idea how quickly I realized what was happening before I pulled away, but it was like fireworks. That feeling is permanently burned into my brain. And then you responded rather ... well rather enthusiastically, actually. Almost toppled over when you leaped at me."

He laughed softly at the memory.

"And I know you know."

His voice was barely above a whisper now.

"But I don't think you know how much. I don't even know how much sometimes. It amazes me every day. The whole universe is your backyard, you travel about being generally amazing and a human can still bring you to your knees. You know why it's so hard for me? Because I know one day I'll lose you. And that's the part of us I focus on in this big head full of time and space and everything. But what if that day was today?"

A sad smile spread across the Doctor's face.

He swallowed hard and said, "I love you, Rose Tyler. I really and truly do."

Rose's hand squeezed tight on his own, startling the Doctor from his thoughts.

"Fireworks."

The Doctor's eyes, wide with relief, shock, happiness, love and a million other emotions, darted up to meet hers.

"What?"

"Fireworks. I see them too."

A look of disbelief broke over his face.

"Really, I do."

The disbelief turned to happiness.

"Umm, Rose?"

"Hmm?"

"How much of that were you awake for?"

"Well I may have woken up when you grabbed my hand."

"Ah."

"But I didn't want to stop you talking."

Rose sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed to face him properly, a beaming smile on her face.

"I'm sorry," he said plainly.

"For?"

"... for almost killing you? How are you not cross with me?"

"S'not really your fault. Hard to be mad at someone who just said they love you, anyway."

"Well I guess that's true. But what if I were to do this?"

Rose laughed as the Doctor swung her off the bed and dipped her close to the floor before kissing her.

"If you think I'd ever be angry at that, you're mad! But maybe we should make deals about the laundry more often if this is how it ends up."

He lifted her upright.

"And all the stuff that happened in between? Everything that happened to you today?"

"The runnin', the adventure, the imminent danger. S'just our life, isn't it?"

"That it is! Shall we get back to it? If you're feeling okay, that is."

"Of course. But this time, I'm wearin' pants."

The Doctor couldn't help but smirk at her remark as he watched Rose turn the corner to change in her room.

"Rose?"

He could hear her echoing footsteps running back towards him.

"Yeah?"

"I really do love you."

Rose stood in front of him, shining bright as ever, her tongue poking from behind her smile.

"I love you, too."


End file.
